Business Ideas For Mums – Page 6

October 12, 2009June 9, 2011

Business Ideas For Mums – Running an Information Website

Tell me more… Online shops are a popular choice for mums who want to run their own business. Alternatively, you could create a website that provides information. This might be…

A listings website showing what’s on in your local area
A blog – blogs (‘weblogs’) are websites which started out as online diaries, but many have now developed into websites that provide information, news and opinion on a specific subject or to a particular community.
A social network or membership site where members pay a monthly fee to receive information, training or coaching on a particular subject. This could be as a video, podcast, e-book or e-course.
A website selling an information product such as e-books and e-courses.

You can earn money from an information site by…

Selling advertising space, much like a magazine
For a directory site, you could charge people to list their business or sell advertising space (or both).
Google Adsense – Google will pay you when a visitor to your site clicks on an advertiser’s link (there are other similar programmes too).
Affiliate links – you are paid commission when visitors to your site buy from a site you are affiliated to.
Selling an e-book, e-course or other information product on your website.
Becoming an expert in your subject could lead to delivering courses, selling print books, coaching or being a consultant.
Ebuzzing

What are the benefits?

You can work whenever and wherever you want
It’s cheap and easy to get started
You can write about a subject that you love and get paid for it.

Things to consider…

It’s very easy to start a blog which means there are millions of blogs out there. Getting large numbers of people to visit your site will take a lot of work, including networking, driving web traffic to your site and writing lots of content plus some knowledge of search engine optimisation and social media. You’ll also need to write great content that will bring people back to your site again and again.
Getting people to spend money on your website will mean you need to convince them that what you have to sell is of value to them and that you’re an expert in your area. This can take a lot of trial and error to discover what works for your audience, as well as giving away lots of information for free.

Further information

Examples of information websites run by mums:

Business Plus Baby – this site is a blog. Parent Pages is a website giving local information and things to do for parents. Become a Mumpreneur is a membership website.

Want to try blogging?

You can start your own blog for free using WordPress or Blogger. To make money from blogging you’ll need to move on from a free blog, but this is a good way to see if blogging is for you. To learn about making money online, see Entrepreneur’s Journey and ProBlogger. For advice on writing content, see Copyblogger.

Not convinced that running an information website is for you? Take a look at other business ideas for mums.

September 16, 2009June 4, 2010

Business Ideas for Mums – Selling on Ebay

What is it?

Making an income from selling on auction website eBay.

Benefits

You can work at any time of the day or night – although you'll need to respond to customers promptly.
You can spend as much or as little time on it as you want.
It's cheap and quick to start up compared with setting up your own online shop.

Things to consider

Low prices

Items on Ebay are usually at a low price – this is because you are competing in a marketplace with thousands of sellers, many of whom aren't looking to make much of a profit. As well as people looking to clear their lofts, you're also competing with shop owners who are shifting excess stock and ends of lines. This allows them to keep their prices at a reasonable level on their own websites or in their high street shops. You'll need to choose your product carefully if you're going to make an income rather than just a few quid here and there.

What to sell

Look for items you can get hold of cheaply and easily but that others probably can't. Do you have a factory shop near you? Do you have an eye for good quality items at car boot sales? Do you have an interest in something vintage? You could try selling a few different types of items and see which bring in the best profit – I did pretty well when I sold almost-new vegetarian shoes (yes, really!).

Don't forget to register as self employed

If you're emptying your loft, then you probably don't need to declare the income you make from this to HMRC (although check this out if you're in any doubt). But if you're making an income from selling on eBay you'll need to register as self employed.

Further information

Take a look at eBay for how to sell

The basics of how to sell – http://pages.ebay.co.uk/sell/basics/start.html Information about fees is here – http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/sell/fees.html

Mums' Club have a useful guide to selling on Ebay http://www.mumsclub.co.uk/html/selling_on_ebay.html

Alternatives to eBay

For crafts and handmade items: www.etsy.com www.dawanda.co.uk www.folksy.com www.misi.co.uk Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/seller-account/mm-product-page.html?topic=200314070&?ld=UKAZSOAMake Other auction sites (although these have many fewer visitors than the mighty eBay): uk.ebid.net www.cqout.com specialistauctions.com Tazbar.com was another auction website, although it has now closed. Not convinced that selling on eBay is for you? Take a look at other business ideas for mums.

July 22, 2009April 17, 2015

Business Ideas for Mums: Running a pre-school group

Tell me more… Pre-school groups are for children under five and usually held in village halls or community centres. They help children play, learn, have fun and interact with other children and include:

Messy play
Arts and crafts
Music and dance/movement
Speech and communication
Cooking
Baby yoga and massage
Languages, including sign language

You might also like to consider becoming a tutor.

What are the benefits?

You may be able to take your own children with you, although it will depend on the group and the age of your children. Caring for your own toddler while setting up and clearing away could be hard work!
You can run as many or as few sessions as you want.
You might be able to start your own franchise.
You could diversify e.g. you could also run children’s parties or produce a CD.
If you don’t want to start from scratch, there are several franchises you could buy.
If you have a background in childcare or education but fancy a change from school or nursery, this could be a rewarding new career.

Things to consider…

Parents may encourage you to charge on a per-session basis as it’s more convenient for them. But you’ll have costs to cover such as the hire of a hall, so you may need to charge on a termly basis. You could make this more appealing by offering a the first session for free or the first three sessions to be paid on a per-session basis.
Demand is likely to be term-time only, so will you need to find other ways of earning an income for the other 12 weeks in the year? Or does term time working suit you?
Many Sure Start centres have opened up over the last few years offering free pre-school sessions. You can compete with this, but you will need to think about what you have to offer that the Sure Start centres don’t have. Alternatively, you could ask them if you could run sessions for them. If you can’t beat them, join them!
When working out how much you could earn from running a pre-school group, don’t forget to include the time you won’t be paid directly for, e.g. setting up and clearing away, administration, lesson planning and preparation.
Check out the legal requirements, which will be different depending on the group you run. For example – do you need a Criminal Records Bureau check? What are the health and safety requirements, do you need to be inspected by Ofsted? The Pre-School Alliance leaflet (see below) is a good place to start.
If you’re looking at buying a franchise, how long will it take you to earn back the franchise fee? What do you get with the franchise? Is this good value for money?
It may take you a couple of years to get a full group of children.

Further information

The Pre-School Alliance have a Quick guide to running baby and toddler groups.

Franchises available include Talking Tots, Musical Minis, Artybobs and many more.

There are lots of mums who have set up their own groups without a franchise, check these out for some inspiration – Jelly Beans Music, Singasaurus, Tots Play, Messy Mob.

Not convinced that running a pre-school group is for you? Take a look at other business ideas for mums.

July 17, 2009

Business Ideas For Mums – Pain and Problems

bump If you want to find a business opportunity, look for where people are in pain or having problems. Here’s a good one for you – maternity clothing. You’d think that someone would have sorted out all fashion problems for pregnant women years ago. After all, women have been getting pregnant since, well, forever. And it’s not exactly a niche market.

Maternity wear has improved since the days of smocks and dungarees but women still can’t get the clothes they want. Pregnancy doesn’t last long, so we don’t want to spend a fortune on an entire new wardrobe, but at the same time we want just a few really good items that make us feel fabulous. Affordable basics such as T-shirts are hard to find (I ended up buying a size 22 non-maternity t-shirt the other week because I’m now too big for New Look’s maternity range!), skirts are hard to find (trust me, a skirt would be a great alternative to maternity jeans in July) and the strappy swimwear and nightwear on sale doesn’t control those enormous pregnant boobs. And I’m not alone – check out this thread on the Mumsnet forum.

Shops stocking maternity wear are few and far between, with the vast majority being online or in catalogues. At the one time in your life when your size changes weekly, you can’t go into a changing room and try on clothes. Crazy.

The wardrobe problems don’t end when the baby appears. If you’re breastfeeding and you’re invited to a wedding you might fancy a nice dress as a change from your usual jeans and t-shirt. Your choices are either black, black or black.

I reckon the market is wide-open for affordable maternity and breastfeeding clothing that women actually want to buy. I’d do this myself, but I’m rubbish at fashion. Could this be your big business break?

July 14, 2009June 11, 2011

More thoughts on direct selling and party plans

Kate Godfrey’s comment yesterday got me thinking about party plans and direct selling, which is interesting because I doubt I’ll ever actually do it again. Never say never and all that, but I don’t think it’s my cup of tea. And that’s fine because I’m on a mission to find what is my cup of tea.

Kate was my team leader during my brief stint as a rep for Usborne Books At Home, and she was a great team leader – and no, she’s not paying me to say this! She was always available for advice, she was upbeat, positive and had a sales background too. This made her knowledgeable about how to sell and a mine of creative ideas for selling books that went way beyond simply parties. Best of all, she knew when to pick you up and dust you down after an underwhelming party without making you feel remotely under pressure.

Kate’s comment got me thinking about why I wanted to write about direct selling. Firstly, if you’re thinking about giving it a try it’s very difficult to get balanced information. You’re either given a glowing review by someone who is trying to recruit you to their team or you get the cynical view of someone who has tried it and not succeeded. You’ll also hear from people who are sick of being hassled by friends who are trying to sell to them. Which is a shame because you need to go into any business with your eyes wide open and the facts in front of you.

Secondly, direct selling has such potential – where else would you get a chance to start your own business with minimum risk, a low initial investment (usually), needing no business experience and with a team leader to mentor you?

What intrigued me was this: why do people who try direct selling often fail make any more than pocket money? The flip side of the easy entry means that direct selling attracts people without business, sales or marketing experience, leading to a steep learning curve and therefore probably a high drop-out rate. Although it’s easy to get in the door, success depends on the same factors as for any other business – hard work, consistent, regular marketing, a good quality product and great customer service. All this takes time, effort and experience to learn. I would also argue that, compared to setting up your own business, the scales are weighted slightly against new starters because part of the price of the product you’re selling will effectively be commission for people higher up the network, so making the product more expensive.

I’ve heard people say that anyone with an outgoing personality and a love of the product will do well at party plans. I disagree. That’s like saying anyone introverted will automatically make a good computer programmer. Selling is a skill that is undervalued – true, some of us are naturally better at it than others, but like any other skill it needs to be learned however fabulous your product is.

So when the end of your maternity leave is looming and you’re looking for a way to avoid going back to your old job, direct selling could be for you. But it certainly isn’t a quick or easy fix. To earn more than pin money will take the same skills, hard work and determination that you’ll need in any business.